New here! Anyone experience skipped beats from overtraining? How many a day and how long till they stopped?

[K1TTUM5]

Hello all,

I've been doing a lot of research on this matter and now I'm looking for anyone who may have personally experienced something like this.

My partner is a 34 y/o male, very fit (cardio, yoga, weight lifting, healthy diet), has been working out seriously for the last 7 years. Recently, he has shown signs of possible overtraining or at least on the road to it. He decided to try and make some personal bests in both weight lifting and running/cardio at the height of summer.

Long story short, he woke up with very consistent skipped beats (every 3 to 5 beats at worst and 7 to 20 at best). The night before he had pushed his pulse to a new max for him, felt great and energized, went to bed, then woke up with his heart skipping.

He has no underlying heart conditions, he has had normal EKGs (most recent 2 years ago) as well as a normal event monitor reading. He's had imaging and testing done throughout his life and everything says he has a healthy normal heart.

We've eliminated any electrolyte imbalance he could have had due to the heat and heavy sweating (he's naturally more prone to sweating), he's had no other symptoms pointing to anything dangerous (no light headedness, no dizzy feeling, fully conscious, no chest pain). Leading up to the sudden onset of these frequent skipped beats, he noted he was becoming more fatigued, had regressed significantly on some of his lifts even after his rest days, he looked to be losing weight without trying, and his psychological state was becoming more agitated (which triggered a lot of his Complex PTSD more than normal). He's currently taking a break from any and all workouts out of fear of his heart skipping. His cardiologist has reassured him that he's in no danger and that coming in isn't worth the risk of COVID.

Please, if any of you fitness people have experienced symptoms leading to or of overtraining, I'd really appreciate any advice.

Did you get frequent PAC for days? How many per day? How did you recover from overtraining? Did the PACs slowly go away with time?

I am 99% sure that these were a result of just doing too much for too long. Any and all help would be very much appreciated!

Thank you

[Mikedabike]

Is it possible to provide a little more information. You state he has had imaging and testing done throughout his life. I have never heard of this before in a fit, healthy 34 year old. Your partner is almost certainly going to put his heart under extra pressure if he is attempting PB’s in lifting etc. I have had a problem over the years which initially I put down to overtraining, then later in life I assumed it was down to me just getting older. It wasn’t until I was 61 that I was told I had been born with a bicuspid valve. The problem I had over the years was that health professionals always dismissed my health concerns as I gave the outward appearance of a very healthy individual. After my diagnosis, when I began to reflect on my athletic career I realised I had suffered just a few of what you describe as PAC’s. Now with the benefit of hindsight I realise they always occurred when I was approaching extreme peak fitness. At times I mistook them for a ‘runners high’ and dismissed them. I have not had one now for over twenty years, but each time I had one, I was lucky enough to only have the one episode with no further recurrences until the next time. What did follow though was invariably some infection or illness (just colds or flu) and a subsequent loss of form and fatigue. If only I had known all this when I was younger. Good luck in your research.

[K1TTUM5 in reply to Mikedabike]

Thank you so much for replying.

When he was a child (about 7?) his grandmother mentioned how red his face got when he ran around and did kid stuff, not sure why that itself would warrant worry but his mother followed the suggestion and took him in to a cardiologist who then did a thorough ultrasound and a stress test. Everything came back totally normal.

When he was 17, he realized during a health class activity that his pulse was quite fast and followed up with a cardiologist for that concern. He was given a monitor and everything was normal except the mildly elevated pulse so he was prescribed a beta blocker (which in hindsight was really not needed since he clearly can decrease his resting pulse with exercise).

Even through all of this, not once had he dealt with PAC/skipped beats. His heart is very easily felt (you can even see his chest beat if he's not moving) so he would have noticed if anything was off.

His most recent monitor was 3 years ago when he had suddenly started having a quick run of beats (5-7) that would stop as soon as they started. They only happened about 4 times and scared him pretty bad but his cardiologist said it was in the realm of normal. He hasn't had any since that one summer and honestly, I think they may have been related to him working out in the heat and always truing for a new PB after all the research I've trudged through but that's just a guess.

He's been skip free now going on 3 days since he's dropped all workouts and cardio out of fear of triggering them. Not even stressful events have been able to set them off, just when he had to mow the lawn.

I'd be shocked if he had any kind of structural abnormality of his heart.

Thank you again for replying!